Career Advice for Children: How Early Should It Start?

Parents, experts, and educators are beginning to realise career advice should not wait until children reach their teen years. Career advice for children as young as primary can set a child on the path to success, raise aspirations, help children value education, and prepare them for the workplace. This article will present some of the advantages of providing career advice to children as young as those at primary school.

Providing Career Advice for Children Raises Aspirations

Under a government plan in England, children as young as seven are offered career guidance in the hope it will raise their aspirations. Career-related learning in a range of areas raises awareness of what these children can achieve. Hopefully, this will lay the foundation for them to make good choices in secondary schools, inspiring them to do well.

Research suggests that many children have very high
aspirations by age eleven, 75% saying they want to go to university. Primary
career advice can build on this by explaining the type of jobs they have will
make a difference in their adult lifestyles, from what car they drive to the
holidays they will have.

Career Advice Provides Advantages for At-Risk Children

The English program aims to challenge some of the negative
stereotyping that leads some children from poorer backgrounds to believe that
universities and certain careers are out of reach for them. All countries have
homes where no family members have a university education, and these children
benefit tremendously from career advice during their primary years.
Additionally, neighbourhoods with gangs and drugs need to have barriers to
social mobility broken down and career advice can help do so.

Career Advice for Children Provides a Glimpse of the
Future

The English program gives primary students a glimpse of what
it is like working and learning in adulthood. At ages eight and nine, they are
asked to realistically consider which careers they are interested in and are
taught that employers value team players, conscientious workers, and employees
who are good at problem solving.

In an effort to get them to think realistically about
their career prospects, children aged 10 write a CV listing the talents and
characteristics they possess that are useful in the workplace, including their
Excel and PowerPoint skills, punctuality record, interests, and any
certificates they have for music, sports, or academic success.

Career Advice Encourages Children to Do Well in School

One extremely important result of career advice for primary
students is that it helps them realize they need to do well at school and possibly
go on to higher education. The seed is planted early, making children want to
take advantages of all the opportunities an excellent education offers them.
Talking about careers helps them understand the things they may need to achieve
in order to achieve their goals.

What Can A Parent Do?

Experts agree that career planning should start as early as
possible. It is never too early to start talking about careers and you can help
your child by doing the following:

In England, the government wants career advice to start in
primary schools and for universities to give younger pupils an experience of
higher education and the wider world of work. English primary students are not
the only ones that can benefit from career advice. Parents, educators, and
experts everywhere need to recognize the fertile minds of primary students are
ready and willing to think about the future and the careers
they will choose.